Turkish police crackdown on Istanbul protesters

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish police fired tear gas and used pepper spray and water cannons to disperse a sit-in by protestors demonstrating against the renovation of a public park in central Istanbul, injuring more than a dozen.

The park, Gezi Square, was set to be demolished to make way for a shopping mall, a wider boulevard and more housing. Protesters occupied the park on Tuesday to halt the park's demolition, which they say will destroy the city's last public green space.

GlobalPost's Mariya Karimjee sent this report from Taksim Square:

The protests were relatively peaceful until the police began using tear gas and firing the water cannons. From what I saw there weren't a huge number of protestors — less than 500 — and the police reaction seemed overblown in comparison to the amount of people.

According to a few protesters who gathered a few streets downhill from Taksim Square, the protest is about more than just the fact that the government is razing the square for a shopping mall — Taksim Square has played a large role in the country's history and acts as a public space for demonstrations, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is taking that away.

"First they took away our right to demonstrate on May 1," said Muhtar Demishevi, a 28-year-old chemistry student. "Now they are saying that we cannot even express our opinion."

Demishevi handed out lemons cut in half, encouraging protesters who were wheezing from the tear gas to rub it on their faces, while two other students handed out milk for people to drink and douse on themselves.

"Erdogan is an Islamofacist," said Cihangir Beginsu, another student. "He even said that it doesn't matter what we say and do, they'll go ahead with the plans anyway. So why can't we make our opinions heard?"